Catch Crop -

Tillage farmers, uncover the value of catch crops in your rotation 🌱🌱🌱

Consider a catch crop to hold and (catch) nutrients in the soil and release them to the following crop rather than getting lost over Winter. Catch Crops, Cover Crops and Green Manures are terms generally used to describe a crop that is sown between two cash crops. Broadly speaking they all help to improve soil structure, increase organic matter content and help with trafficability, but there are some key functional differences between each type of crop

✅ Catch Crops capture excess nutrients leftover from the previous crop preventing nutrient leaching.

✅ Cover Crops cover the ground to reduce soil erosion and weed build-up.

✅ Green Manures provide nutrients for the following crop.

Having an actively growing crop in the ground over winter has several benefits over leaving ground fallow.

✅ Firstly, these crops provide ground cover which prevents soil erosion and suppresses weeds

✅ Help to catch / retain nutrients and release nutrients for the following cash crop

✅ Improve soil structure, the varying root structure of catch crop mixtures helps to improve soil structure which influences nutrient release, water retention and makes land more trafficable.

✅ Rooting opens up ground, the varying root structure of catch crop mixtures helps to improve soil structure

✅ Adding organic matter to the soil

✅ Weed and volunteer crop suppression

✅ Reduce insect pests & disease, depending on the species used, catch crops can break pest and disease cycles

✅ Catch crops can enhance soil chemical and biological characteristics.

✅ Some catch crops can be grazed by livestock over winter

For more information and 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 on catch crops, contact your seed specialist from Southern Fuel & Farm Supplies Ltd🌱

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